Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation
A REVIEW BY JACKY BOWRING
Jacky Bowring is a Senior Lecturer,
Landscape Architecture Group,
PO Box 84, Lincoln University,
Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Telephone: +64-3-325-3804
Fax: +64-3-325-3854
Email: bowringj@lincoln.ac.nz
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'Is a contemplative landscape a place of relaxation, designed to still the mind
of thoughts? Is a reductive design vocabulary imperative? Or is it a place that
should prompt new insights to emerge - perhaps by providing an intense or
unique visual focus?'
D EBECCA KRINKE POSES THESE QUESTIONS as the genesis of Contemporary
£\..Landscapes of Contemplation, which resulted from a symposium held in 2002 at
the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota.
The book, which collects essays by Krinke, Marc Treib, John Beardsley, Michael
Singer, Lance Neckar and Heinrich Hermann, aims to 'contribute to both scholars
of landscape and those involved with the making of landscapes. Definitions,
theories, and case studies of contemplative landscapes are explored' (pp xi-xii).
Landscape architecture's frequently bemoaned lack of theory makes this
book's ambition very welcome. The essays, by a range of renowned scholars and
practitioners, contribute to the body of knowledge in landscape architecture by
documenting a range oflandscapes that promote contemplation. The sites discussed
will be familiar to many within landscape architecture; for example, James Turrell's
Roden Crater, Walter De Maria's Lightning Field and Peter Eisenman's Memorial
to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.
The invocations of theory in Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation reflect
some of the more well-rehearsed approaches within landscape architecture
discourse, such as Neckar's use of the metaphor of language to explicate the
subtleties of the memory landscape of Berlin, and Krinke's application of the
Kaplans' environmental psychology principles in her two case study sites.
It is peculiar, however, that the editor describes the subject of contemporary
landscapes of contemplation as 'underdeveloped' (p xi). Perhaps emphasis is more
often on the 'contemporary' aspect, yet even so, most of the examples discussed
in the book have been well covered in various publications. And neither is the
'contemplative' aspect underdeveloped in the discourse. The significant point is
that there is a developed body of thinking on contemplative landscapes, but it
is largely overlooked. An entire discipline - that of philosophy - offers a field of
thinking on the relationship between contemplation and landscape, yet this book
is silent on the rich underpinnings of philosophy and questions of existence.
The paradox is that while landscape architecture suffers its lack of theory and
sees aspects such as contemplative landscapes as discursively 'underdeveloped', there
is a sense of selective vision. A case in point is Krinke's own essay, where in seeking
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to draw out the contemplative qualities of two case study sites, she conceptualises
them as the 'clearing' and the 'forest'. The two sites are the Reflection Garden in
the Bloedel Reserve in Washington State, USA, and the courtyard of the National
Library of France in Paris, which perform as 'clearing' and 'forest' respectively.
Such terms are powerfully evocative of the philosophy of Heidegger, who wrote
on the notion of the Lichtung or clearing in the forest as a place of 'lighting'
- meaning lighting in the sense of 'opening' rather than being 'bright'. Heidegger
sees the clearing as the place where Being shows itself, where the whole nature of
Dasein - our being there, our existence is revealed.
This also ties in with the issue which Beardsley circles in teasing out the
connection between the phenomenal and the metaphysical, which is evoked by
the contemplative state. Referring to, for example, the dry stone garden of Daisen-
in in Japan, Beardsley discusses how these sites become the places for the 'staging
or the apperception of events: the sound of wind through bamboo; the change
in qualities of light; the projection of shadows on raked gravel; the melting of
snow, the scattering of leaves.' (Beardsley, 2005, p 183). This shuttling between
the visible and the invisible, the contemplation of existence, or the revelation of
a Dasein moment in this stone garden, is a compelling idea in phenomenological
theory, where, in the words of Heidegger, 'The work of art renders visible the
invisible, brings silence into the audible as it gathers world as world.' (Heidegger,
1971, p 168). And in a landscape context the words of Erwin Straus reinforce
this, although referring to landscape painting he equally speaks of contemplative
landscapes: 'Great landscapes all have a visionary character. Such vision is of the
invisible becoming visible' (in Bogue, 2003, p 258).
The coalescence of philosophy and the visual arts is of critical importance to
landscape architecture, and in the context of contemplative landscapes the current
theological turn, as seen in the work of Jean-Louis Chretien and Jean-Luc Marion,
is particularly compelling. Chretien's Hand to Hand: Listening to the Work of Art,
poetically unfolds the phenomenology of interacting with artworks, which may,
of course, be equated with landscape architecture. The notion of finding 'silent
music' in paintings evokes much that is contemplative in the act of engaging with
artworks. Marion's work on saturated phenomenology is profoundly evocative of the
intangible quality of contemplation and the type of metaphysical metamorphoses
that spark in the ether. The notion of 'bedazzlement' or 'amazement' speaks
strongly of the epiphanic event - contemplation at its most overwhelming. Yet
Marion offers no strategies or guidelines for how such an intense event might be
achieved, since to set out to achieve it would preclude its occurrence. He refers to
epiphanic events as invisable, which is not 'invisible' but something that 'cannot be
aimed at' (Marion, 2002, p 199). An understanding of saturated phenomenology
expands our belief in the absolute ability of phenomena to take our breath away, to
leave us ungrounded and to help us apprehend the sublime.
One of the most evocative examples of the fusion of philosophy, poetics and
design is found in Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture, by Steven

JACKY BOWRING 55
 HoU, Juhani PaUasmaa and Alberto Perez-Gomez. This small volume of essays and
studies of the play of phenomena is infused with a sense of contemplation; the
content, the style of writing and use of imagery all convey this. In contrast with
Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation, the writing is poetic and the images are
intense and weU produced. Sheets of tracing paper carrying additional imagery,
diagrams and text are interleaved with the text, adding to a sense of sustained
meditation. However, in Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation, the poor image
reproduction and uninspired layout do little to create an enticing volume. Washed
out and lacking contrast, the images (aside from those in the colour insert which
are at least crisp) fail to capture the sense of depth and space, the qualities of light
and shadow, which are vital to the conveying of contemplative space.
The essays in Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation offer a range of
observations about how selected sites facilitate or inspire contemplation. Yet, there
is a sense of limited disciplinary horizons restricting the scope of the endeavour,
rather than embracing a much more expansive view. Through opening the discourse
oflandscape architecture to philosophy the nature of contemplation and landscape
can be better understood and value may be added to the study of exemplars of
contemplative landscape.

REFERENCES
Bogue, R (2003) Deleuze on Music, Painting and the Arts, London: Routledge.
Chretien, J (2003) Hand to Hand: Listening to the Work of Art, Lewis, SE (trs), New York: Fordham
University Press.
Heidegger, M (1971 [1935]) The Origin of the Work of Art. In Poetry, Language, Thought, New York:
Harper & Row.
Hall S, Pallasmaa J, Perez-G6mez, A (1994) Architecture and Urbanism July 1994, Questions of
Perception, Phenomenlogy of Architecture Special Issue.
Krinke, R (2005) Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation, New York: Routledge.
Marion, J (2002 [1997]) Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, Stanford: Stanford
University Press.

56 LANDSCAPE REVIEW 11(2)